The Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has thanked and congratulated staff at Weston General Hospital for their “hard work and dedication” following improvements within the A&E department.
The A&E department’s performance against the four-hour national target has improved in the last year. In 2017-18, it was 85%. This financial year it is averaging over 90%.
The letter states: “the Trust is a real example to others, demonstrating how to improve performance in a short space of time and ensure that your patients get the care that they deserve.”
The A&E department at Weston, which currently operates from 08:00 until 22:00, has introduced safety nursing sisters who ensure the safety of the department by completing hourly safety rounds – checking sepsis screening, medication checks, workforce numbers and equipment – as well as using a safety checklist which ensures patients’ assessments and tests happen in a timely way in order to improve patient safety.
Weston Area Health NHS Trust (WAHT) chief executive, James Rimmer, said: “I cannot underestimate the difference our staff make, to every individual patient and their family and also to the overall achievements of the Trust. This continues to be a challenging time but every day staff strive to do their absolute best and for that I am extremely grateful, and I am very pleased to see this has been nationally recognised by the former Secretary of State for Health and Social care.”
The letter ends with: “please pass on my personal congratulations and thanks to everyone who has made this happen.”
ENDS
Notes to editors